Easter Sunday *Weekend Open Thread*

Greetings, folks – I am hoping my Internet connection continues long enough to reprise the following post from three years ago. I want to thank dear KenoshaMarge for keeping the blog going while we continue to deal with an unexpected problem as a result of our move. Never did I think that in this day and age we would be struggling so to have internet, cable, phone, and cell phone service, but almost 1 1/2 months later, we are still without all of the above. Whew. At least the booster is doing its job for the moment so I can get this post up for the Weekend Open Thread, celebrating Holy Saturday and Easter.

I am adding a couple more Easter hymns at the end of the post I am reprising because it is such a glorious event, and time of year. I invite you to do the same, if you wish.

Happy Easter to you all!

Sunday is the most important day for Christians worldwide – the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The entire religion hinges on this one day. Without the Resurrection, there would be no celebration. Of course, this day was preceded by great sadness as reflected on Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified. Jesus was betrayed, crucified, and had a spear thrust into his side, yet Christians believe that three days later, the stone to the tomb was rolled away, and Jesus appeared in his resurrected form to Mary Magdalene first (Mark 16:9-11). That he chose to appear to a woman first, at that time, in that culture, is significant, I think. I will spare you an entire exegesis on this, but to say that it seems appropriate given the previous recent discussions of women and girls here. In any event, this is a big, big day for Christians.

Recently, my partner had the following video via a friend on Facebook. It seems to be incredibly appropriate for this day, the near death, and restoration to wholeness of this incredible creature. But it doesn’t end there. Oh, no – watch to the end:

The sheer joy, the joie de vivre, of this magnificent mammal, hurling herself up into the air over and over and over again, a difficult feat to be carried out repeatedly, the thankfulness, the sheer excitement of it, literally brings tears to my eyes. It seems most appropriate to me on this day.

And so, as Christians around the world rejoice with the refrain, “Hallelujah! The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Hallelujah!”, I would be remiss in not including a classic piece to mark this day:

To those of you who celebrate Easter, a very happy Easter to you. I hope it is one filled with joy, celebration, and music.

And for those of you who may not celebrate Easter, I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday!

Happy Easter, Happy Sunday, Happy Day! This is an Open Thread.

As promised, here are a few more Easter songs to celebrate this day:

And this one:

I know I had this one up recently, but it is just too perfect not to repeat. Hey, this is a reprisal post, after all, so what better time to reprise this fantastic version of “Oh Happy Day” by Reba McEntire:

Well, NOW this all makes sense, Helen. It seemed like an extreme response to someone who had paid all of his fees when this land was under state control. And since the tortoises and cows have coexisted peacefully for quite some time, that seemed to be a ginned up excuse. But to have snipers, choppers, and on and on, over some CATTLE, seemed WAY out of proportion.

I hope the House and Senate jumps on this ASAP. Well, the House at least – we know the Senate won’t do jack…

No, it most definitely would NOT be a surprise. She is one brave woman, isn’t she? But then again, when you have had your computers hacked – private and professional and had to go up against your employers for not wanting to tell the truth, calling out Media Matters is child’s play.

Amazing, isn’t it, that this is just the way she has lived since Obama came to town…

Warm Easter greetings to Cuzin (great post! great music!) and Marge, Helenk, Foxi…etc!
My father’s adult choirs and orchestra performed the French composer, Theodore Dubois oratorio ” The Seven Last Words of Christ” almost every Holy Week while I was growing up. I usually played violin in daddy’s orchestra. This is my favorite piece for this Holy Season. …..especially the “second word” that Jesus spoke from the cross. He was speaking/responding to one of the criminals hanging beside him. The criminal asked Christ to remember him at his death. This video is in Latin, as Dubois originally wrote it (but daddy’s choir sang in English) Here’s the translation..Hope you all enjoy this. It is so gorgeous and so moving. And these two male singers are magnificent, too. I think.

“Verily, thou shalt be in Paradise today with me. Amen. So I tell thee.”

Wellesley student editorial: “Hostility may be warranted” towards those who embrace “hate speech” after reeducation

True story: Wellesley used to be a thought of as a good school with bright students.

In fairness, despite all of the attention being paid online today to this fascist anti-fascist excrescence (the paper’s server is overwhelmed with traffic as I write this), there’s nothing in it that you wouldn’t hear on any other campus or in any other campus’s faculty lounge. It’s distinguished by two things, one being the surprisingly poor quality of the writing.

Normally when you’re claiming the intellectual authority to reeducate the unwashed and, if need be, to ostracize the unrepentant among them, you proofread your copy to make sure clanging phrases like “We have all said problematic claims” have been safely excised beforehand.

The world’s most anticipated baby giraffe is finally here! April the Giraffe, whose pregnancy has been livestreamed since February, gave birth Saturday morning while at least 1.2 million people watched.

Jordan Patch, owner of Animal Adventure Park, said they’d be holding a naming contest, with proceeds going to support giraffe conservation in the wild, giraffe care at Animal Adventure, and “Ava’s Little Heroes,” an annual fundraiser.

We’ve all seen little foals and the problem they have learning to get those four legs under control. Imagine the problem for a baby giraffe with those long legs on one end and that long neck on the other.

America is in shambles on every front. We are economically stagnant and indebted almost beyond calculation. The vicious hate of ISIS is met just as often with concerns about Islamophobia as it is with calls for justice. Men are putting on dresses and entering women’s bathrooms because they and the enablers of their psychosis think they are the 21st century’s Rosa Parks. A death-cult, that receives hundreds of millions of dollars from taxpayers each year, is seen on camera cavalierly bargaining away the dismembered remains of the human beings they murdered. And the very freedom to call out to God at all, religious freedom, is being pushed as far back into a corner as our cowardice and moral ambiguity will allow.

This is all, quite frankly, beyond the power of any man — or even our formidable Constitution — to cure. These are mortal wounds. We need an exorcism. We need to be raised from the dead.

But our Savior has been there. He has done that. He can show us the way. Not, though, if our faith is a fetid pool of confusion. If we have been praying at all, we have largely been praying to the god we want and not the God we need. That just won’t do. We may as well be praying to a Buick or a tomato.

Thanks so much for this. As I see young people continue to go down this road of allowing boys on girls’ sports teams to the detriment of girls; the constant drumbeat against free speech on our university campuses; the demands for “safe spaces,” which really means incredible intolerance and immaturity; the lack of historical perspective; the devaluing of human life as Deace highlights; and so much more, I worry abt this nation, and abt us as people.

Yes, there is hope – hope in the Resurrection. But with the focus on how great Islam is and how terrible Christianity is that seems so prevalent these days, it is an uphill battle. Not that that should make us shy away from it, not at all. Things need to change.

This is something you don’t see every day. We had stopped into Tractor Supply t pick up a few things. I had gone to sit in the car while Suzy was in the (long checkout) line since my legs were killing me and the Yankees were on the radio.

Anyway, Suzy came out and told me to look behind me. That is when I saw this:

The camel was from a petting zoo, and the drivers walked right past me as I was listening to the game. I just didn’t realize what they had behind them. After they came out, I mentioned to one of them what a sight this was to see. He said, “You should try driving down the road with him!”

On Easter Sunday, more than 1 billion Christians across the world will celebrate a pivotal historical event from the first century A.D. Christians believe that after being crucified on Good Friday, Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, proving that He was the Son of God and giving hope to his disciples. But did this really happen?

Christian apologetics cannot prove that the Resurrection happened, but it can present evidence to make it plausible and counter the arguments against it.

There are three major objections to the Resurrection — that the Bible’s accounts are unreliable, that Jesus did not really die on the cross, and that there is a better explanation for early Christianity besides Jesus’ rising from the dead.

The thing I find most intriguing about those who say that the resurrection never happened is that it isn’t enough for them that they don’t believe, they must convince others that they are right. Thus they seek, for some reason, to destroy the “faith” of others. Why? I’ve never understood. My only conclusion, after many years and much thought, is that misery wants company.

I have always wondered abt that too, Marge – why the need to try and convince people how wrong they are abt their faith. I guess it makes them feel better abt themselves for not believing, maybe?

I am reminder again of the movie I saw. The journalist-now-pastor-and theologican, Lee Stroebel, on whom it was based was definitely one of those people. He frequently referred to the Christ message as a “fairy tale.” He was condescending and patronizing to anyone who believed in Christianity. Hence why he started to do his own research, with a very clear bias against Christianity.

And that whole “500 witnesses” was a hard thing for him to get around. He tried desperately to discredit how 500 people could have seen the same thing.

Indeed – if this was the case for any other story, thees same people writing the above article would accept it in a heartbeat. At least that’s my bet…

I believe in the resurrection. Jesus of Nazareth is the Creator who spoke the world into being. He descended to earth, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, descended into hell, then rose again and ascended into Heaven. I believe He will return.

I write about this event every year. I turn my radio program, for one day, into a day to talk about the monumental shift in history this event caused. But this year is a bit different.

Nearly two millennia ago, Jesus conquered death. Exactly one year ago, death paid me a visit. I went in to a doctor’s office thinking I had a heart problem; I had chest pains and shortness of breath. The breathing had progressively gotten worse over the preceding four months and I just assumed it was allergies.

They are so precious and well worth the repeat each year. Having raised two sons this video always reminds me of them. They were 13 months apart and when they sang they sounded so like these two little tykes.